David Davis has proudly recounted the day a newspaper called him a “charming bastard” - but falsely claimed the story was on the front page.

The Brexit Secretary was asked by a reporter in Washington if he felt more welcome in America than Brussels, given EU divorce talks were growing so tense.

Davis used the opportunity to tell of a story the Financial Times published in the 1990s in which a Portuguese foreign minister called him “the master of constructive obstruction” and a “charming bastard”.

He claimed the story was a front page splash, but the only discovered reference to him being a “charming bastard” was in fact on page 19, according to the BBC, and it also appeared that Davis made the comments about himself.

Labour has labelled his appearance in the US as “like an episode of The Thick Of It.”

FT confirms "Charming Bastard" reference to David Davis was on page 19 in a 1995 edition. Not a front page headline pic.twitter.com/PL03xv2DDD